AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

Geoff Bennett is away.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: The June jobs report exceeds expectations, while slightly higher unemployment signals a cooling economy.

Labor Party leader Keir Starmer accepts King Charles' invitation to form a new government after a landslide victory in the United Kingdom's general election.

And Boeing faces a deadline to accept a Department of Justice plea deal connected to the deadly crashes of two 737 MAX airplanes.

ZIPPORAH KURIA, Daughter of Crash Victim: We will go to the ends of the earth to make sure that this isn't just something that goes away quietly.

(BREAK) AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Today, President Joe Biden is digging in.

In more than one appearance today, he underscored that he has no plans to leave the campaign, despite calls from some Democrats and supporters.

We will have more on that story later in the program.

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy added more jobs than expected last month, marking the 42nd consecutive month of job growth; 206,000 new jobs were added in June.

Government hiring accounted for more than a third of those, followed by health care, social assistance and construction.

Unemployment also inched up to 4.1 percent, making it the first time it's risen above 4 percent in more than two years.

And there were other signs of a cooling labor market.

Job gains in April and may were revised downward by more than 100,000 jobs.

For a deeper look at what this means for the economy, I'm joined by Roben Farzad, host of public radio's "Full Disclosure."

Roben, always good to see you.

So what do these numbers say to you?

Is it a sign that the economy may be cooling?

ROBEN FARZAD, Host, "Full Disclosure": Certainly, market watchers have been looking for that, econ watchers, for the longest time, because the Fed had to ratchet up rates after its error, I think, coming out of the pandemic and leaving rates too low for too long, and so still in the process, I think, of mopping up inflation.

But it's odd.

Are you rooting for good news?

Yes, if you're the White House.

Are you rooting for bad news?

Maybe if you're investors or traders.

And yet the market is at an all-time high.

Real estate is at an all-time high.

Crypto is looking puff.

So it's a real debate on Wall Street.

Do we even need rate cuts?

Maybe the Fed just needs an excuse to maybe take down a little and wait and see.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, what about those interest rate cuts?

I mean, employment has cooled.

Wages have also cooled.

We should note wage growth has been generally declining since March of 2022.

Inflation has cooled slightly, not all the way down to 2 percent, which is know - - we would know, where the Fed wants to see it.

Some economists are arguing it is now time for the Fed to cut interest rates.

Do you think they will?

ROBEN FARZAD: Maybe they will, I think, in the September quarter.

That gets powerlessly close to the election.

And let me say, coming in out of a wild card, that there is now risk from a kind of institutional perspective.

If the market starts to feel consternation about the election or about the position of democracy, a contested convention -- I think you guys have covered this left and right.

The Fed has many arrows in its quiver to handle that.

So far, there's no sense of crisis out there.

There are streaks of weakness in the economy.

The unemployment rate is still at 4 percent, which is considered a natural level.

Inflation is a little bit too high for comfort for the Fed to be cutting at least aggressively.

So there's really no urgency to this.

AMNA NAWAZ: There's no urgency, but give us a sense of what other signs you think they may be looking for here.

How much of a cooling, how much of a slowdown do you think is needed?

ROBEN FARZAD: Gosh, can you imagine 2008, right?

That was crisis, the feeling of freefall.

Can you imagine the beginning of 2020, when unemployment shot up, I think in April, up to 14.8 percent.

You had mentioned that we had job growth now for 42 straight months.

The Fed, at least this century, has saved a lot of its powder for those types of crises.

And we haven't tasted anything like a crisis since this -- the onset of this pandemic.

If you might remember, we had like a banking swoon a couple of springs ago.

I mean, that stuff is short-lived, and I think the Fed is more worried on balance right now about rekindling an inflation that's just so difficult to put out.

Everybody is -- nobody out there is really used to these prices going up as much as they did and staying where they are.

AMNA NAWAZ: What are some of the unknowns we're not thinking about here, Roben?

I mean, what else are you going to be watching for in the months ahead?

ROBEN FARZAD: Again, I'm thinking about the election.

I'm thinking about volatility from a headline perspective, if you remember what markets did -- this is a long time ago -- during the kind of the Gore-Bush recount and those intervening month, month-and-a-half, two months.

I'm thinking about institutional cracks.

You see a lot of distress in commercial real estate right now and a lot of landlord forbearance.

You saw a headline this week about student loan debt, and so much of it remains unpaid and unserviced.

What happens if that comes back online and everybody is stuck with a bill again?

That's an economic shock of its own kind.

The good news is, the Fed took up rates by a chunky, what, 4.5, 5 points, and there's plenty of room to hike if it needs -- I mean, to cut aggressively if it needs to, but, then again, no sign of that yet.

AMNA NAWAZ: There's an interesting nugget from this report I want to put to you to get your take.

It's worth noting the jobs report showed that teen summer employment is at its highest rate since 2007.

More than 37 percent of teenagers are now working.

What does that say to you?

ROBEN FARZAD: Gosh, Kings Dominion is halfway between us, right?

I'm in Richmond.

You're in Northern Virginia.

You try running a theme park in this environment without teens who are out there eager to make $14, $15, at a time of tipflation, no less.

You try running a diner.

You try running any sort of hospitality-driven business.

You saw hospitality was such an ongoing strong point in those jobs numbers.

It's so hard to get people to show up for job interviews, and much less to keep that job, that this has opened up wage opportunities for teenagers, the likes that I don't think we have ever seen.

Back in my time, you would be lucky if you earned $4.25, five bucks.

I mean, yes, and even in the inflation-adjusted terms, a lot of people out there are making $75, $100 a day now.

AMNA NAWAZ: We have less than a minute left.

But I have to ask you, big picture, we talk a lot about the vibe session, about this gap between what we're actually seeing in the economy and what people feel in their everyday lives.

Does anything in this number -- these numbers today say to you that will change?

ROBEN FARZAD: I think that it's still a bifurcation.

I can't believe that it's like this.

If you have capital assets, if you have stocks, if you have real estate, if you have crypto, you're feeling flush, you're feeling hale and hearty, and you could more than absorb this inflationary hit.

If you're paycheck to paycheck, if you are one of those millions of Americans who cannot make an emergency expense, all of this news about asset markets is so much cold comfort.

If you're somebody that can't afford a house, what's going to happen if the Fed takes rates down and that stimulates a mortgage market that doesn't really need it right now?

It is certainly a confusing time.

AMNA NAWAZ: Roben Farzad, host of public radio's "Full Disclosure," always good to see you.

Thank you.

ROBEN FARZAD: Likewise.

Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: In the day's other headlines: Hurricane Beryl has been downgraded to a tropical storm as it cuts across Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

Beryl made landfall in Mexico this morning as a Category 2 hurricane with winds around 100 miles an hour.

It's left at least 11 people dead across the Caribbean.

And it's expected to regain hurricane strength this weekend as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico and heads towards Texas.

Officials there are urging coastal communities to prepare and have issued preemptive disaster declarations for 39 counties.

The Kansas Supreme Court reaffirmed the state's abortion protections today, rejecting two anti-abortion laws.

One would have banned a common second trimester procedure.

The other would regulate abortion providers more strictly than other health care professionals.

Justice Eric Rosen wrote the state constitution - - quote -- "protects a fundamental right to personal autonomy, which includes a pregnant person's right to terminate a pregnancy."

Donald Trump's lawyers asked a U.S. judge today to pause the classified documents case against him in Florida, citing the Supreme Court's ruling this week granting presidents broad immunity for official acts.

In their filing, they argue that a pause would -- quote -- "minimize the adverse consequences to the institution of the presidency arising from this unconstitutional investigation and prosecution.

The request comes days after the judge in his New York hush money trial agreed to delay sentencing as he weighs the potential impact of the court's decision.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says Russia and Ukraine are still -- quote -- "far from each other" in ending their war.

That came during his unannounced visit to Moscow today, where he became the first European leader to meet with President Vladimir Putin since 2022.

Orban was in Kyiv just three days ago, urging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept a cease-fire.

European leaders panned the Moscow trip as a form of appeasement, rather than diplomacy.

Orban argued he is in a unique position.

VIKTOR ORBAN, Prime Minister of Hungary (through translator): There are fewer and fewer, and now remain hardly any, who are able to speak with both warring parties.

Hungary is one of very few.

AMNA NAWAZ: After their meeting, Putin repeated his conditions that Ukraine withdraw forces from four regions that Russia claims to have annexed in 2022.

Cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas look to be active again for the first time in weeks.

Israel says that a top official held initial meetings with mediators in Doha today, but noted -- quote -- "gaps between the parties."

That follows Hamas submitting amendments to a three-phase proposal backed by Israel, the U.S. and other nations.

Talks are set to resume next week.

In the meantime, Palestinian authorities say that an Israeli raid and airstrike in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin killed seven people.

A militant group claimed four of its members were among the dead.

Iranians voted in a run-off presidential election today after a first round last week failed to produce a clear winner amid record low turnout.

It's to replace the country's late president, Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May.

And it comes after years of social unrest and bruising economic sanctions.

Iranians are choosing between hard-liner Saeed Jalili and reformist lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian.

Some who voted today are hoping for change.

Others say there's no point, since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the ultimate decision-maker.

WOMAN (through translator): I want to save the country from the isolation we are stuck in and from lies and the violence against women.

WOMAN (through translator): I will not vote because whoever comes to power cannot do anything since there's someone else above them.

AMNA NAWAZ: A government spokesperson said turnout today was higher than in the last round, but videos posted online claimed to show some polling stations were empty.

Final results are expected on Saturday.

At least 20 people have died and dozens more injured across the U.S. to start the extended July 4 holiday weekend.

In Chicago alone, local media say 11 people were killed and 55 injured in the shootings as of this morning.

In Huntington Beach, California, two people were killed and three were injured just a few hours after a fireworks display ended.

And in New York, a truck plowed into a crowd of revelers in Manhattan, killing three people and injuring at least eight others.

Police say the driver was intoxicated.

The July 4 holiday is historically one of the deadliest of the year.

And on Wall Street, stocks ended higher after that monthly jobs data provided new hope for a potential interest rate cut.

The Dow Jones industrial average inched up, gaining 67 points.

The Nasdaq scored its fourth straight record close, adding more than 160 points.

And the S&P 500 also climbed further into record territory.

Still to come on the "News Hour": David Brooks and Kimberly Atkins Stohr weigh in on the week's political headlines; Wisconsin's Supreme Court revives the use of ballot drop boxes ahead of the 2024 election;and the International African American Museum helps visitors excavate their past through genealogy.

After winning a huge majority in Britain's general election, new labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he will start working immediately on rebuilding the country.

He promised what he called a big reset after 14 sometimes turbulent years of Conservative government.

The defeated Conservatives are looking for a new leader after Rishi Sunak resigned as he left office.

Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from London.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) MALCOLM BRABANT: Seconds after voting ended, exit polls confirmed that Sir Keir Starmer had led the Labor Party to one of its greatest ever parliamentary victories and that he was heading to 10 Downing Street.

KEIR STARMER, British Prime Minister: People here and around the country have spoken, and they're ready for change, to end the politics of performance, a return to politics as public service.

MALCOLM BRABANT: This was the worst election result in the Conservative Party's history.

Rishi Sunak, Britain's first prime minister of color, managed to hang on to his district in Northern England, while many of his colleagues were wiped out.

After 14 years of Conservatism ended, with most people being poorer, voters took their revenge.

But Sunak was dignified in defeat.

RISHI SUNAK, Former British Prime Minister: To the country, I would like to say, first and foremost, I am sorry.

I have given this job my all, but you have sent a clear signal that the government of the United Kingdom must change.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Despite the size of Labor's majority, this is being described as a loveless landslide; 40 percent of the electorate abstained, and Labor only managed to obtain a third of the total vote.

Most experts agree that Britain wanted to teach the Conservatives a lesson, and that this is not an overall endorsement of Labor or Keir Starmer.

MAN: Sir Keir Starmer, Your Majesty.

MALCOLM BRABANT: The choreography of British elections requires the monarch to invite the winner to form the next government.

And after his audience with the king, Starmer addressed the nation.

He was magnanimous in victory and offered an olive branch to those who hadn't voted for Labor.

KEIR STARMER: Whether you voted Labor or not, in fact, especially if you did not, I say to you directly, my government will serve you.

Politics can be a force for good.

We will show that.

We have changed the Labor Party, returned it to service, and that is how we will govern, country first, party second.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Starmer's political experience has been in domestic politics.

But now he has to step up to the international stage and become the new face of the so-called special relationship with the United States.

Starmer has talked about an early recognition of Palestine as a state.

He's also less hawkish about China.

Evie Aspinall is director of the British Foreign Policy Group, based in an art gallery.

She sees potential trouble ahead.

EVIE ASPINALL, Director, British Foreign Policy Group: Israel-Palestine could certainly prove to be a challenging point of contention between the U.K. and the United States.

I think also China would increasingly be a source of contention as well.

So there are definitely some potential bumps in the road.

If Trump wins in the United States as well, I think that will prove even more challenging.

Keir Starmer and Joe Biden have a lot in common, but Keir Starmer and Donald Trump don't have a huge amount in common.

So I think the next few years could be particularly challenging for the U.K.-U.S. relationship.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Britain's new foreign secretary is David Lammy, who says Aspinall, is going to have to learn the language of diplomacy.

EVIE ASPINALL: Lammy will have a lot of work to do to kind of rebuild relationships with Trump if he does win.

They have already been doing quite a lot of that.

They have been working quite hard to kind of win over Republican support particularly and those they think will be close to Trump if Trump wins.

So, it's already in motion.

They will be doing a lot to kind of show that actually there are areas of common ground.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Another change in Britain's foreign policy is going to be over Europe.

Relations between E.U.

capitals in London have been strained since Brexit and the hostile language of successive Conservative administrations.

Starmer wants closer ties to try to boost trade and improve agreements over security and immigration.

But Jill Rutter, a European specialist at the Institute for Government, is skeptical about the potential for success.

JILL RUTTER, Senior Fellow, Institute for Government: Keir Starmer has made clear that we're not applying to rejoin the E.U., nor are we applying to join the single market or the customs union, but he does want to improve the relationship with Europe.

He wants to have closer cooperation on foreign policy and defense, and he wants to try and improve what he refers to as Boris Johnson's botched Brexit deal.

The interesting question is whether there's much appetite in the E.U.

for doing that.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Another major foreign policy issue is Ukraine, whose flag flies high above buildings in Whitehall, London's government district.

Britain has led European solidarity with Kyiv.

Foreign policy expert Evie Aspinall says that will continue under Starmer.

EVIE ASPINALL: Ukraine remains a top priority for Keir Starmer, as it has been for Rishi Sunak.

In the U.K., there's kind of bipartisan support for U.K. leadership in supporting Ukraine in the invasion.

So that's across the board, defense, aid, et cetera, migration as well.

I don't see any big substantive change coming on the U.K.'s policy on Ukraine.

MALCOLM BRABANT: On the home front, Britain's divisions are exemplified by the result in Worthing West on England's South Coast.

Labor's Beccy Cooper, a public health doctor, managed to defeat the longstanding Conservative incumbent, Sir Peter Bottomley, but only because the reform candidate, Edmund Rooke, attracted so many votes from disaffected Conservative supporters.

Across the country, Reform, an anti-immigrant party, led by Donald Trump's ally Nigel Farage, secured 13 per cent of the overall vote.

But because of the electoral system, Reform only won five seats.

Farage will be one of the loudest opposition voices in Parliament.

What sort of prime minister do you think he's going to be?

NIGEL FARAGE, Reform Party Leader: Boring.

Very, very boring.

(LAUGHTER) NIGEL FARAGE: I mean, he's got -- I mean, there's nothing.

There's no flair.

He's Blair without the flair.

That literally is what he is.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Despite his majority in Parliament, Keir Starmer is unlikely to enjoy a honeymoon period.

He told Britain to vote for change.

But Britain is impatient.

It expects him to deliver soon.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Malcolm Brabant in London.

AMNA NAWAZ: Another court decision that could impact the 2024 presidential election, this time from the state Supreme Court in Wisconsin.

Our Lisa Desjardins has more.

LISA DESJARDINS: In a 4-3 decision, the new liberal majority on Wisconsin's Supreme Court today reversed a near-total ban on the use of ballot drop boxes in elections there.

In 2020, President Biden won Wisconsin by one of the smallest margins in the country.

Restoring this voting method could have major implications for this year's election.

Following this all closely is Zac Schultz with PBS Wisconsin.

Zac, tell us what the court decided.

And is this the final word before the election?

ZAC SCHULTZ, PBS Wisconsin: It is the final word before the election.

The liberal majority here by 4-3 overturned only a 2-year-old case.

It was called the Teigen case.

And in 2022, then the conservative majority in a pretty fractured decision, with only finding a consensus on a handful of paragraphs, enough to essentially say Wisconsin state law did not explicitly allow absentee ballot drop boxes and, therefore, they weren't allowed.

In the dissent, the liberals at that time said they got it wrong.

This is their chance to redo it.

They took the case.

Throughout this process, the conservatives had signaled in all their dissenting opinions that they knew this outcome.

It was preordained.

They have been taking shots at the liberals, saying they're just running policy for the Democrats.

But it's a big decision and it clears things up for Wisconsin's municipal clerks in advance of our August primary and the November elections, so they know how this will play out.

LISA DESJARDINS: As you say, this is a complete flip from the conservative court just over a year ago.

And this could affect an enormous amount of ballots.

According to a Pew survey in 2020, some 40 percent of early votes were cast using these ballot drop boxes.

Do we know, does the presence of these boxes, as we now will expect in Wisconsin, does that benefit one party or the other?

ZAC SCHULTZ: Well, Republicans, and especially in the wake of Donald Trump's election conspiracy, tried to say that it was about Democrats and Democratic fraud.

But the fact is, these were used in most counties, including red counties, rural areas, places that supported Trump and conservatives.

And we're expecting some of these to go back.

In fact, it may benefit those areas more, because, if a local clerk doesn't have regular office hours, someone can simply drop off a ballot, especially if the mail isn't quite consistent running up to Election Day.

So we expect them to come back.

Madison and Milwaukee have already announced they will be open and ready.

They really never removed their boxes in the first place, but more areas around the state.

It will be a locality decision to decide how they come back into play.

LISA DESJARDINS: As you say, this was a part of conspiracy theories and some of the lies about the 2020 election, but on a more basic level, what do we know about how secure these ballot boxes are?

ZAC SCHULTZ: Well, we know that, in Madison, for example, they're located outside police stations, fire departments.

There are cameras nearby so they can monitor them.

They're dropped -- they're locked.

They only have certain access.

So, in some respects, they are more secure than your mailbox, where, in Wisconsin, it's perfectly legal to place your absentee ballot to be mailed back.

So it has the same security that you would expect anywhere.

LISA DESJARDINS: This was an enormous decision, but can you take us more broadly as we finish up into the state politics surrounding your Supreme Court and what decisions and issues can be ahead?

ZAC SCHULTZ: Well, the biggest one is just this week that same liberal majority announced they will revisit Wisconsin's abortion ban and that law that was -- dates back to 1849.

They're taking two cases on that, one which would just examine whether to overturn the law, and the second, much more broadly, would look at whether there is a constitutional right to abortion and health care abortion services in Wisconsin's Constitution.

The way that it's being set for briefings, they will be ready for oral arguments in the fall, so that brings up the possibility that that decision could come down some -- before the end of the year, maybe by Election Day.

LISA DESJARDINS: Zac Schultz with PBS Wisconsin, thank you for covering this all.

And we will be seeing you soon at the Republican Convention coming up in Milwaukee in just over a week.

ZAC SCHULTZ: And can't wait to see you.

AMNA NAWAZ: At a campaign event in Wisconsin this afternoon, President Joe Biden vowed to stay in the race for the White House.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: Well, guess what?

They're trying to push me out on the race.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: No!

JOE BIDEN: But let me say this as clearly as I can.

I'm staying in the race!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) JOE BIDEN: I will beat Donald Trump!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) AMNA NAWAZ: For analysis on the tenuous week in the Democratic Party, we turn to Brooks and Atkins Stohr.

That is New York Times columnist David Brooks and Boston Globe columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr.

Jonathan Capehart is away.

Great to see you both.

Let's just take stock of where we are right now.

We have now seen three House Democrats publicly call for the president to step aside.

The Washington Post reported late today Democratic Senator Mark Warner is attempting to pull together Democratic senators asking him to leave the race.

And we're starting to see some major Democratic donors back away, among them, Abigail Disney of the Disney family.

She said in a statement yesterday she's stopping all Democratic contributions until Biden is replaced.

And she said this -- quote -- "This is realism, not disrespect.

Biden is a good man.

He served his country admirably, but the stakes are far too high."

Kim, can the president change the narrative, or is this heading one direction?

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR, The Boston Globe: Look, the president has already done what Democrats were waiting for.

They needed him to make the decision as to whether he would be the nominee or not.

We are past the primaries.

The voters have already had their say.

It would have to be the nominee to make that decision.

And it seems that he has.

So now Democrats really don't have a choice.

Mark Warner, donors, other people don't pick the Democratic nominee for president.

The people and the process do.

And they have already done that.

So I think, at this point, I agree that this is a crucial moment in time and that the threat of democracy that looms with a potential return to the White House of Donald Trump is something that cannot be ignored.

I think, the more Democrats continue to fight and quibble and play this game about replacing the president, when there's no -- not even an heir apparent, the weaker they are.

We haven't heard anything from Donald Trump this week, and that's probably the most disciplined he's campaigned ever, because he realizes the Democrats are doing the work for him.

AMNA NAWAZ: David, at this critical moment, as Kim says, how can the president calm those concerns that are clearly still out there?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, he could take a cognitive test, which is what I think he should do over the weekend.

And then people aren't worried about -- they're sort of worried about now, but, really, they're worried about 2027, what Joe Biden is going to be like in 2027, if he's still president.

And so I think he should take a test and say -- and he's -- he's taken them in the past.

He said, I took this cognitive test.

Best doctors.

It's all public.

Here it is.

Rest my case.

And so he could do that.

And I think, frankly, he should do that, because, right now, there's like clouds of witnesses.

Like, there are all these anonymous stories floating around there.

There's, like, a lot of people saying, oh, Biden's been like this for weeks or months.

Then there's people -- anonymous stories, the White House staff, they're all miserable.

Then there's anonymous stories that the Congress -- people and the Democrats in Congress are really angry at the Democrats who are governors who are supporting him, and the Democrats in Congress do not want to run with Joe Biden on the top of their ticket.

And so it's all this anonymous floating.

And it's very hard to get a sense of where the vibe of the party is.

I do think what's been clear in my reading of the floating is that people have been more reconciled to the idea that Kamala Harris would be the alternative, that moving beyond her is just not -- a nonstarter.

There's some doubt about whether the money can float any candidate.

I think it probably can.

But you see people getting more comfortable with the idea of Kamala Harris.

So I don't think this is going to be over, though Biden's statement today was pretty definitive.

But the party is -- 72 percent of Americans don't think he's qualified to be president or to run again for president.

That's just a reality.

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR: I think that this is, as you're describing it, these circles, these clouds, these are largely happening inside the Beltway, OK?

And, again, inside the Beltway isn't where the president will be showing -- will be campaigning.

That's not where... AMNA NAWAZ: There are -- I should point out, there are voter concerns about his age.

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR: There are voters' concerns too.

But I have -- by and large, the majority of the people that I have heard from coast to coast want to focus on beating Donald Trump.

They have just as much agita about this Democratic in fighting and hand-wringing as they do about a couple of sentences that Joe Biden flubbed during the debate.

They see this inching closer and closer.

We're coming up on both conventions.

The time to make a decision is over.

And I think, if Democrats pull together and show, again, half of the fight that Republicans have, who have always stood behind Donald Trump, and they actually have a candidate with a good record who believes in fighting for democracy, the better off the Democrats will be, yes, even if Kamala Harris is the candidate -- and it's -- I think it's a little insulting to her that it's only -- it's only taken until now for them to realize that, since she is the vice president of the United States.

Maybe.

But I think that decision has already has to have been made.

And Joe Biden has made it.

He's staying in.

AMNA NAWAZ: David, what about the stakes here?

Both Kim mentioned -- Abigail Disney mentioned them in her statement as well.

Biden backers have told me, look, they're worried that the focus on this conversation takes the focus off of Trump, who is an antidemocratic candidate with authoritarian tendencies, who is now newly empowered by that Supreme Court immunity ruling.

The head of The Heritage Foundation, we should point out, that's running this Project 2025 policy planning for a potential second Trump term, said this, this week.

He said the country is in what he called the second American revolution-, and it could be -- quote -- "bloodless if the left allows it to be."

There's kind of this alarming language around a potential Trump presidency.

Are we losing sight of the stakes here?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I think so.

I mean, I -- before he went to prison, I went over to see Steve Bannon and interviewed him.

And I was scared out of my mind.

Like, I just asked him, what's going to happen if you guys win?

And he said: It'll be nothing like 2017.

In 2017, we didn't have staff.

We had nothing.

But now we have got people who have been vetted.

We have got people who are trained and we're just going to go after the deep state.

It looked like a dismantling of the civil service, basically.

And that's just the beginning.

So I do think people are losing some focus on that.

And I have been a broken record on this for, whatever, seven years.

But it is also true that every American pretty much has seen an elderly relative in decline.

And they sort of know what that looks like.

And if I could just do one bit just random polling, as I mentioned, 72 percent Americans don't think he should run again.

In... AMNA NAWAZ: Biden, to be clear.

DAVID BROOKS: Biden.

AMNA NAWAZ: Yes.

DAVID BROOKS: If you look at The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times poll, Trump is up by six.

In today's approval numbers, Biden is at a record low.

Trump is winning the swing states by more than before.

So, there's real cause for concern.

And if your main goal is to get Donald Trump not reelected, to me, it's a very open question of what the best route for that is.

And I'm not saying -- I'm not one of these people who says Joe Biden should step down.

I will wait.

But I do think it's an open question.

AMNA NAWAZ: I want to get back to this issue of how we're talking about President Trump as well here, which is to say there seems to be sort of an asymmetry of expectations as well in terms of Trump's performance in the debate, which was filled with misleading statements and lies.

He's only three years younger than President Biden, often veers off-script when he's not on prompter.

Is -- do you see that asymmetry?

Is that affecting the conversation right now, Kim?

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR: I 100 percent see that asymmetry.

Look, we can talk about mental cognitive tests that people might want the president to take, but we already know that Donald Trump has failed the moral test.

He's failed the democracy test.

He's failed the insurrection test.

And if we balance those things, it seems really clear.

And I think one thing that this conversation makes us lose sight of is the fact the work of the Biden administration and other Democrats being already dismantled ever since the Supreme Court overturned Chevron just earlier this week.

We already have two federal judges, Republican-appointed federal judges, one that knocked down a rule that kept people from being bound by noncompete clauses that would prevent them from practicing their livelihoods, another rule that prevented federal coverage of transgender health care.

This is happening right now.

This is happening this week.

The dominoes are already falling, and we haven't even gotten to Project 2025.

That's the sort of thing that I wish that people in my industry were focused on in these days and weeks leading up to these conventions, as opposed to calling for the president to be able to say man, woman, camera, TV.

Let's talk about the issues that are important.

AMNA NAWAZ: So we're just about a week out from the Republican National Convention.

We know that Trump will be the nominee.

And we're weeks out from the Democratic Convention.

Just quickly from both of you, will Biden still be the nominee?

What do you think?

DAVID BROOKS: I don't know.

I thought, a week ago, for sure.

I just don't know right now.

AMNA NAWAZ: Kim, what about you?

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR: I have to believe the president when he says he's the nominee.

AMNA NAWAZ: So let's just take a step back now, because we are weeks from these conventions.

We're mere months from the last day of voting on Election Day.

And I want to just reflect and hear from both of you on your expertise and your insights here on this moment in American political history, which feels very fraught and very uncertain.

I'm just curious where you're looking for grounding or parallels and how you're looking at this right now.

David?

DAVID BROOKS: Yes, I'm looking abroad.

I mean, I'm looking all around the world.

We're seeing -- with the exception of the U.K., where they had a right-wing government in power for 14 years, you're just seeing populist right movements just surging.

And Emmanuel Macron, like Joe Biden, made a bet.

And the theory of their administrations was, we have got these disaffected working-class folks.

We're going to invest massively in them.

And Macron, in the North of France, in the U.S., in Ohio, in Upstate New York, these places are doing really well economically, plants going in, in all these places, and people are feeling upbeat about the plants.

But the -- it has not helped Biden or Macron at all.

And so the theory that we could economically spring these working-class people back to the Democratic Party or to Macron's party, that theory just hasn't been true -- been true -- proven true, because it's a cultural issue, not an economic issue, for these voters.

And that has put Biden in a hole and has put the center-left in a hole in nation after nation after nation.

AMNA NAWAZ: Kim, what about you?

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR: I am looking here at home and in the present time.

We know that Donald Trump will not get the majority of votes of Americans in this upcoming election.

But we have an Electoral College process that requires people to campaign in that way.

So we already know Joe Biden is going to get more votes.

What we need to do is convince people that it is worth not only just sticking by him, but in claiming that -- their democracy now, when they know what is at stake.

Republicans remain unified, in part because they have to for survival, because they don't have that majority, right?

They stick behind Donald Trump even long after he has proverbially shot that person Fifth Avenue.

Democrats are different beasts, right?

They have different ideas.

They're not monolithic.

There's a diversity of views about just about everything among them.

So it's not in their DNA to just line up behind someone.

I get it.

But when they see a threat this clear, and if they don't organize work -- and if you want to look to someone, look at what the -- what the Labor Party did in the U.K.

They organized.

They fought.

They got together.

And they got that wide victory.

That's what Democrats have to do right now.

They have to stop the infighting.

They have to keep their eyes on the prize and campaign for the majority that they know they actually have among the American people.

AMNA NAWAZ: Can I just say, at the end of this week that has felt like a year, it is so, so valuable to hear from both of you with your insights and your expertise.

Thank you so very much, Kimberly Atkins Stohr and David Brooks.

DAVID BROOKS: Thank you.

KIMBERLY ATKINS STOHR: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: This is a key weekend for Boeing, the Justice Department, and hundreds of families.

The U.S. government is waiting to see if major airplane manufacturer Boeing accepts its deal to plead guilty to criminal fraud in connection with two deadly crashes in 2018 and 2019, both 737 MAX jetliners, that killed 346 people.

Lawyers for the victims say Boeing would also have to pay more than $240 million in penalties and agree to an external monitor.

It stops far short of imposing more serious criminal charges and larger penalties that some have asked for.

Boeing is supposed to decide this weekend on whether to accept the deal or go to trial.

Before we unpack the details of that deal, we're joined first by Zipporah Kuria, whose father was killed in that 2019 Boeing crash.

Zipporah, welcome, and thank you for being with us.

We don't yet know what Boeing is going to do, but what is your view?

Do you want to see Boeing accept that plea deal?

ZIPPORAH KURIA, Daughter of Crash Victim: At this point, there's a question as to whether what we want to see matters as the families.

I think we would want the plea deal not to have been offered to them in the first place, but we would love for them not to accept the plea deal, so we could go to trial, and then, hopefully, there would be a journey or, like, some hope of justice.

But I do not expect them not to plead guilty, because I don't think any deal can get any sweeter than this sweetheart deal that they have come to an agreement of or the extension of the pre-agreed sweetheart deal that they have had with the DOJ.

AMNA NAWAZ: Tell me why you think it was a mistake for the Department of Justice to offer this deal in the first place.

ZIPPORAH KURIA: When a corporation is charged with the death and what we see as the murder of 346 people, and they're charged with fraud to begin with, and you're given a second chance because they have breached the agreement that they said that they would adhere to, you would think that they would come down on them a lot harder and would actually look to hold them to account, not just for failing to comply with the agreement, but also for the death of 346 people.

It's ridiculous that we're even having this conversation.

AMNA NAWAZ: I should say you're referring in that previous deal to a 2021 agreement that was reached between the Department of Justice and Boeing in which they paid a fine and had some terms they were meant to follow for three years or so.But this is a new deal now with what some lawyers argue is a more serious criminal charge they'd be pleading guilty to.

And, look, some of the lawyers for many of the families say this is better than nothing.

Do you accept that argument?

ZIPPORAH KURIA: I think nothing on top of nothing is still nothing.

The death of 346 people still goes unrecognized by both of these deals.

The families still are not being recognized as victim.

And, also, the fact that they still have the opportunity to select their independent monitors, which allows them to self-regulate, which is what got us here to begin with, for me to say that that's better than nothing, nothing on top of nothing is still nothing.

AMNA NAWAZ: I know that you and so many others have been fighting for the last five years.

And I wonder if you think that, if they accept this deal, is there a next step for you?

Do you have any more options moving forward?

ZIPPORAH KURIA: At the moment in times, it doesn't feel as though we have any other options moving forward.

But what I do know about the ET302 families and some of the Lion Air crash victim families is that we won't relent.

The first deal completely disregarded us.

So I don't know how, but what I know is, where there's a will, there's a way.

And one thing that we have is tons of will to make sure that this doesn't just become something else that's stuck under a rug or it doesn't happen to other families.

We know that, if there's an avenue to appeal, we would appeal to Judge O'Connor.

We will appeal, do whatever we need to, if we have to go to the Supreme Court, if that's an option.

AMNA NAWAZ: Zipporah, we know that there are 346 stories behind each of those lives lost.

Can you just tell us a little bit about what you want us to know about your father and what the last few years have been like without him?

ZIPPORAH KURIA: When you say 346 people, it wasn't just 346 people's lives that were messed up by this.

It was every other life that was attached to that.

And for me and my family, it's like time has stood still.

You know, I have watched my friends get married.

I have watched them buy houses, build their careers, but I have been losing sleep over what - - when's the next crash going to happen, and watching Boeing go scot-free for the death of my dad, who was just such an incredible man.

And it's like the purest souls were on this plane.

Everyone who was on there, their family members talk about their mission to go serve young people in Kenya, to go provide medicines, people that were going to -- young people that are going to intern for the U.N.

There were young -- there were people that were doing amazing things.

There were selfless humanitarians on their way to go and serve the world.

And the selfishness of a company like Boeing has robbed them and thousands of lives that were connected to them of what they would have brought to this world.

It's even difficult trying to think straight and speak straight sometimes, because it's like the world stopped moving.

One of the most heartbreaking things is looking at the family members that have lost their children and knowing that they will never get to see them learn how to walk.

They will never get to see them go to school.

They will never walk them down the aisle or celebrate these milestones.

The thought of other people being in our position is enough to keep us going.

And, ultimately, as well, the people that we lost, like I said, they were all remarkable souls.

Like, my dad would have gone to the end of the earth for me.

And that gives me the fire to continue to go to the end of the earth, not just for him, but for the next person sitting here.

AMNA NAWAZ: Zipporah Kuria, thank you so much for being with us, for sharing your father's story.

We really appreciate your time.

ZIPPORAH KURIA: Thank you.

AMNA NAWAZ: For the record, we have a standing request into Boeing for an interview with its CEO, David Calhoun.

Let's get some more context now on this proposed deal and what it could mean for Boeing and the larger industry.

Our aviation correspondent, Miles O'Brien, joins us again now.

Miles, you heard there, the frustration for these families is so real as they seek justice.

Just back us up for a moment and tell us, how did this plea deal end up being offered by the Department of Justice to Boeing in the first place?

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, Amna.

It's heartbreaking listening to that, of course.

And we all -- our hearts go out to those families as they try to find some kind of justice in the midst of this horrible tragedy.

But the fact is that, if you look at history, the chances of criminal charges against individuals at Boeing prevailing in court are not great.

If you look at the one and only company in U.S. history charged with criminal charges in the wake of an accident, SabreTech, which provided oxygen canisters on a ValuJet flight in 1996, the company faced 110 manslaughter and 110 third-degree murder charges in Florida.

But the charges were dropped.

A fine of $500,000 was paid -- or, actually, it became a donation.

And the company pled no contest, then went out of business.

In this case, the Department of Justice would say that this is a better way to ensure Boeing maintains compliance and tries to up its game on safety.

There will be a monitor.

There will be a mandatory board of directors meeting with the families.

They will have to make investments in safety.

So, hopefully, that will create real-world changes.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, Miles, do we know, is Boeing likely to accept this plea deal?

And, if so, what happens then?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, it's a take-it-or-leave-it deal.

A federal judge in Texas -- assuming Boeing goes along, which it seems likely they will, a federal judge in Texas will have to approve it or tweak it or modify it.

The company faced the uncertainty of a trial, reputational problems, of course, further reputational problems, and the fact that this plea deal indicates no charges will be levied at individuals.

The biggest customer for Boeing is the federal government, and this allows a waiver to allow them to continue to do business with the federal government, even though they're guilty of this crime.

AMNA NAWAZ: We have about 40 seconds left, but I have to ask, because, as you have reported, we don't often see that aviation accident investigations are criminalized in the U.S.

This seems to be different.

Why?

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, the aviation industry is built around the idea of trying to make things safer, the NTSB, the FAA.

Think about aviation safety, not necessarily creating an environment of criminality.

They're afraid that it would hinder the ability to make aviation safer.

And in the case of aviation, sometimes, real-time decisions need to be made quickly to fix some fundamental problem with an aircraft.

Ironically and tragically, the fact that there wasn't candor on the part of Boeing may have ultimately led to that second crash.

It's too bad that we have to be in this position.

AMNA NAWAZ: Our aviation correspondent, Miles O'Brien.

Miles, thank you so much.

Good to talk to you.

MILES O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ: As we celebrate what it means to be an American this week, we return to a report from Geoff Bennett at the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina.

Tracing family lineage has taken off as a hobby in recent years, with some estimates putting the number of visits to genealogy Web sites at over 100 million a year.

This museum, which hosted 200,000 visitors in its very first year, aims to honor untold stories at one of America's most sacred sites.

This encore look is part of our arts and culture series, Canvas.

DAWN GRAVELY, California Resident: It seems that my family somehow was captured in what is now Nigeria and brought through Jamaica.

GEOFF BENNETT: Californian Dawn Gravely (ph) is among the visitors posing their personal family tree questions in this recording booth for museum researchers to then investigate.

DARIUS BROWN, International African American Museum: The men also had the mitochondrial DNA.

But we just don't pass it on.

Only the women do.

GEOFF BENNETT: The same team also offers instruction about the ins and outs of accessing public records, all while inspiring visitors to glean new meaning from a distant past.

This is all part of the Center for Family History at the International African American Museum.

Museum officials say they have the broadest collection of genealogical records of any institution in the U.S. and one of the most vast in the world.

Some 400 million records are searchable here, including those from before the 1870 census, the first after the Civil War to include African Americans by name.

The legacy of slavery makes it so difficult for so many African Americans to track their family history, certainly before the 20th century.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN, International African American Museum: Yes.

GEOFF BENNETT: And absolutely before the 1870 census.

Where does this museum come in?

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: We have got some big hopes and dreams here at the IAAM.

GEOFF BENNETT: Malika Pryor-Martin, the museum's chief learning and engagement officer, lays out the mission.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: Help folks break down what we refer to in the genealogy world as that brick wall of 1870.

It's both myth and reality, because the myth, the records are there.

The reality, access is tough.

So, it's natural to think about the kinds of records that you would search for people.

However, in an antebellum period, the overwhelming majority of people of African descent here in the United States or what becomes the United States are not people.

They're considered property.

So we are really interested in investing in digitizing and working and partnering with other institutions to digitize them to make what they digitized available.

GEOFF BENNETT: The museum is situated where Gadsden's Wharf once stood, the site where an estimated 40 percent of all American enslaved Africans arrived in the U.S.

It's estimated that, between 1710 and 1808, upwards of 150,000 captive Africans landed at the many ports throughout the Charleston Harbor, including Gadsden's Wharf.

A memorial garden under the building marks that historic site.

The museum opened in June after 20 years of planning with a number of delays.

Galleries include African Roots, which traces the movement of people of African descent throughout the Atlantic world, American Journeys, which shares stories that shaped U.S. history through the international lens of the African diaspora.

Carolina Gold showcases the impact of enslaved people on South Carolina plantations who helped build the lucrative rice industry, while the Gullah Geechee exhibit looks at contemporary issues facing these descendants of West and Central Africans, who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U.S. and includes this replica of a praise house.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: It's a spiritual center.

It's a place that's really and truly home away from home.

It's a place where the community can find justice.

So it's really serving as a point of reference and grounding for the sustenance of the entire community.

DARIUS BROWN: Ancestry does the DNA testing.

FamilySearch, they just only deal with records.

GEOFF BENNETT: Twenty-five-year old Darius Brown, an undergraduate at the nearby College of Charleston, is also a research assistant at the museum, running some of the genealogy 101 sessions, while piecing together his own past for the last six years.

He's been able to trace several lines of his family back to the colonial period and reconstructing the population of enslaved people at several South Carolina plantations.

He is also self-publishing a book about his revelations.

You have a picture of members of your family gathered on the day that the Emancipation Proclamation was read to them?

This is phenomenal.

Tell me more about this.

DARIUS BROWN: Old Fort Plantation actually became Camp Saxton.

And, now, Camp Saxton is where their enlistment into the first South Carolina actually took place.

And so I have about 30 relatives that fought in the Civil War, and they actually received their stars and stripes that day at the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation.

GEOFF BENNETT: And you have photographic evidence of it?

Where did this picture come from?

DARIUS BROWN: During the Port Royal Experiment, different abolitionists were coming down to Beaufort.

They were teaching the people how to read and write for the first time.

They were some of the first African Americans to earn wage labor.

And so a lot of people -- photographers came down and they were taking pictures of the enslaved people.

GEOFF BENNETT: That's extraordinary.

Do you happen to know which of these folks are connected to you?

DARIUS BROWN: I wish I did, but I know that my family is somewhere in there.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

Well, just having the picture is enough.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: I have had the benefit of knowing my family history.

And, fortunately, it was couched with most folks don't know this stuff, so I had a degree of appreciation and I had a level of awareness that it wasn't common for someone to be able to trace their lineage eight generations.

And for a lot of Americans, that's not even necessarily the easiest thing to do.

GEOFF BENNETT: You can trace your lineage eight generations?

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: Yes, at least on one line.

GEOFF BENNETT: Wow.

Malika Pryor-Martin says the journey of turning over historical stones can reveal much pain, but also joy.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: There are thousands of those stories, and when we have the opportunity to discover them for ourselves, then we can confirm without question and doubt we're brave, we're smart.

We have the capacity to strategize, to have empathy, to forgive, to fight, I know I have said it already before, but to love.

There's something pretty radical about living under conditions that really aren't built for you to survive, and to still choose to love.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

Yes.

And tracing one's history to that is -- it's unmatched.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: That's right.

GEOFF BENNETT: Yes.

MALIKA PRYOR-MARTIN: That's right.

GEOFF BENNETT: People keep probing their hunches, intuitions, and presumptions of their past, trying to see if they can pin down where their family roots truly lie.

AMNA NAWAZ: Be sure to tune into "Washington Week With The Atlantic" tonight.

Jeffrey Goldberg and his panel discuss the Supreme Court's blockbuster rulings this term.

And on Saturday's "PBS News Weekend," former astronaut Cady Coleman on life in space and overcoming challenges during her two decades with NASA.

Before we go tonight, a note of thanks to a longtime member of our WETA production team.

Our technical production manager, Nancy Gerstman -- there she -- is retiring after 31 years of dedicated service.

Nancy, we want to thank you for your unfailing technical expertise, for your warmth, for your grace you have brought to us every day.

We are going to miss you so much.

Nancy, thank you.

And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

On behalf of the entire "News Hour" team, thank you for joining us, and have a good weekend.